Racquet 'Power Zones' in TWU

Hey guys, avid reader of the forums since 09 but haven't gotten around to posting anything till now..

Quick question: according to the Racquet Power Zone data provided by TW here, http://twu.tennis-warehouse.com/learning_center/contours.php, smaller headsizes tend to have much, much larger power zones than the larger ones. Example, the BLX PS 90 has a larger 'power zone' as compared to a Bab Aeropro. Does this mean that it has a larger sweetspot, contrary to popular belief?

Hey guys, avid reader of the forums since 09 but haven't gotten around to posting anything till now..

Quick question: according to the Racquet Power Zone data provided by TW here, http://twu.tennis-warehouse.com/learning_center/contours.php, smaller headsizes tend to have much, much larger power zones than the larger ones. Example, the BLX PS 90 has a larger 'power zone' as compared to a Bab Aeropro. Does this mean that it has a larger sweetspot, contrary to popular belief?

Click to expand...

Every frame is different. Just because it has a smaller head size doesn't mean it has a bigger sweet spot. It generally goes the other way. Reason why the 90 has a bigger power zone is likely because it has more mass in the head. I think they call sweet spot "sweet zone".

Hey guys, avid reader of the forums since 09 but haven't gotten around to posting anything till now..

Quick question: according to the Racquet Power Zone data provided by TW here, http://twu.tennis-warehouse.com/learning_center/contours.php, smaller headsizes tend to have much, much larger power zones than the larger ones. Example, the BLX PS 90 has a larger 'power zone' as compared to a Bab Aeropro. Does this mean that it has a larger sweetspot, contrary to popular belief?

Click to expand...

The size of the power zone is mainly a function of swingweight. The PS 90 has a higher swingweight than the Aeropro, so the power potential in the center of the stringbed is therefore greater. If you switch to "location view" in the above tool you'll see the actual power potential data for each location. The tool uses a program to turn those location numbers into the zones. If you want to compare two racquets with different swingweights use the location view. This allows you to look at how much the power potential drops off from the center of the strings toward the top and sides of the hoop. You'll see that the PS 90 has high power potential in the center and doesn't drop off too much toward the sides, but does drop off quite a bit toward the top of the hoop. The Aeropro doesn't drop off quite as much towards the sides because it has higher twistweight than the PS 90 and drops off much less towards the top of the hoop because it is stiffer. This is where stiffness makes the biggest difference - at the top of the hoop.

If you want to take the comparison to another level, you can take advantage of a nice 1 to 1 relationship that just so happens to exist with the power potential data: For each 1 unit of swingweight, the power potential changes by 0.1. So if you are looking at the power potential location view for the Aeropro you can add, let's say, 10 swingweight units, which will add 1.0 power potential units to each location. So if the stock Aeropro had 40.0% power potential in the center of the strings, if you added lead tape to raise the swingweight by ten units the new power potential in the center would be 41.0%, approximately. You can use this to compare two frames with different swingweights. Just add the amount of swingweight needed to get the Aeropro to match the PS90's swingweight, add the adjustment figure to each location and you can then compare them, apples to apples. (The apples being swingweight

Of course, where you add the lead tape will matter - if you put lead at 12 o'clock the power potential will go up in the center and even more near the top of the hoop. If you add at 3&9, the power potential will go up in the center and towards the sides of the hoop. But using the 1 swingweight unit = 0.1 power potential unit relationship will help in making rough comparisons between frames.

You can also use this tool to get a better sense of how large the sweet zone for a racquet is, scaled to swingweight.

Also note that the 2013 Aeropro that TW University tested had very low swingweight (nice QC Babolat!), so its power potentials are all going to be quite low.

And remember, these numbers are most meaningful if swingspeed isn't a factor. If you swing the PS 90 at the same speed as the Aeropro the PS90 will produce a faster shot. But the PS90 has a higher swingweight and static weight so you might not be able to swing it as fast. If you swing the Aeropro even three miles per hour faster it will produce a faster shot with more spin, even though the power potential numbers are lower for the Aeropro. Some people seem to swing lighter racquets faster than heavier racquets, while other people seem to swing everything at more or less the same speed. For the former players, lighter racquets with lower swingweight will be most "powerful", but for the latter players heavier racquets with higher swingweights will be more "powerful".